From day one it didn’t work and I documented some of my troubles on this site.

A couple of weeks ago to my amazement it started working properly.  I haven’t a clue why as I did nothing to it.  I didn’t upgrade software or anything.  It will have to remain a mystery.

One of the features of the iConnect is that it is a media streamer.  I had disabled this during “the troubles” so I re-enabled it and stared loading some music onto an attached drive.

I have no experience of media or uPnP so it was an interesting experience.

The first thing I learned was that the metadata on each and every track was critical for success, and also found that some of the tracks off my CDs had incorrect information in them.  A misspelled item on one track would isolate that track from the others which ended up in a messy setup. This meant I had to do a lot of editing.

I have a reasonable selection of CDs and the only method I could think of at first to edit metadata was to load each track into Audacity.  This was a very lengthy and very time consuming progress so it was clearly out of the question.  That’s when I found EasyTAG.  This is an excellent little program that did everything I wanted and did it quickly and efficiently.  It even batch processed a full CD (or rather a full directory of files).

Another problem I had was caused by a little quirk of the iConnect – it could categorise any track it found on the drive, but I was unable to play anything that was further than one directory from root.  If, for example I had a file /pop/Beatles/Abbey Road/Something.mp3 it would be listed in the Media stream but wouldn’t actually play.  Being a somewhat methodical sort of bloke I didn’t like the idea of dumping every single file into the one spot without ordering them in some sort of fashion.  I decided that changing the file names would work well.  However the idea of rewriting a thousand or two filenames didn’t appeal.  I installed Métamorphose and that proved perfect for the job. Now I could rename my files as, for example /pop/Beatles_Abbey_Something.mp3, simply by adding “Beatles_Abbey_” as a prefix to every filename.

My final problem was that several of the albums were in FLAC format which was fine but bulky.  I decided to convert all the files to MP3 format as it suited my needs better.  Here I came across SoundConverter which was a little slow but very happily ran batch jobs so it was just a question of pointing the program to the relevant directories and leaving it to it.

It was a lot of work, but worth it.  I can now play my entire collection on a Wifi portable or on the PC which save a lot of time and effort hunting for CDs!

One of the great joys of Linux is the ease with which a reinstall can be done.  A Windows reinstall is a slow process and when it is complete there is the tedious and lengthy process of reinstalling all the software, if you can find all the disks and the licence codes.  Even then, the chances are you have lost all your settings for the various programmes and you have to customise them all over again.

With Linux, it is a simple matter of restoring your Home directory from backup and that’s that.

However there are still some programmes that have to be reinstalled.  There is no fear of having no CDs or licence codes as they are already available on the Net.  The problem (if you can call it a problem) is remembering which programmes to install.  For that reason, I have made a little list as a reminder to myself in the future.  I have called this “Essential Linux Software” but that just means it is essential for me.

First on my list is VirtualBox.  This is essential not only for testing other flavours of Linux but also for running Windows for the odd programmes that won’t run on Linux.  Naturally I will have kept all my virtual machines intact in my /home backup!

I have to include Filezilla despite its small problems.

Another one I like is Alacarte.  which is a nice little program for tidying and editing the Menu.

I am a great fan of Audacity.  However, to record off the soundcard I also have to install pavucontrol.

Skype is another essential, and again all it’s settings and history can be restored from the /home backup.

Another programme that isn’t exactly essential but is just too good to miss is Google Earth.

For my browsing and mail I like to use the absolute latest versions of Firefox and Thunderbird and therefore use the nightly builds (called respectively Nightly and Earlybird).  As I have both installed directly in my /home directory they are automatically installed from backup.

All the above can be installed directly by using Synaptic Package Manager or Software Manager.  There is one little programme that I like which has to be manually installed.  That is Grub Customizer.  Installation of this requires a wee bit of Terminal typing.  The lines are -

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:danielrichter2007/grub-customizer
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install grub-customizer

The one feature of this little programme is that apart from being a good Grub editor, it can set Grub to load to the last used OS.  On a dual boot machine with Windows, this is very handy as for example Windows may need to reboot after an update.  In a normal Grub, Windows will try to reboot into Windows, but will actually end up in Linux, if that’s the default OS.

Occasionally I like to delve into the strange world of Twitter.  For this I use Tweetdeck which requires Adobe Air.  The latter is simple to install once you know how!

I’m sure there are one or two I have missed.  I’ll add them at a later date if necessary.

Any other suggestions?

My usual method of dragging a file from the remote pane to local caused Filzilla to crash spectacularly.

My good friend Kirk over in the States discovered the cause (Filezilla requires the wxWidgets library which apparently is missing in Mint 12) and the following is the fix……

In Terminal, run the following -

sudo apt-get install curl

Follow that up with -

curl http://apt.wxwidgets.org/key.asc | sudo apt-key add -

In Software Sources (or else in Software Manager –> Edit –> Software Sources) add the following -

deb http://apt.wxwidgets.org/ natty-wx main

and

deb-src http://apt.wxwidgets.org/ natty-wx main

Back in Terminal, run -

sudo apt-get update

Finally run -

sudo apt-get install python-wxgtk2.8 python-wxtools wx2.8-i18n

That’s all.  Filezilla should now run with no problems.

With thanks to wxpython.org and in particular, Kirk

Footnote:  When I originally published this, I accidentally omitted the instruction about “curl http://apt.wxwidgets.org/key.asc | sudo apt-key add -”.  The fix will work without this line but it will case an irritating popup about security keys each time an Update is done.  Sorry about that!

The first one I tried out was Linux Mint 12.  As I am a fan of, and use Linux Mint, I like to know what’s coming down the road.

The most significant change that I can see is the new Gnome desktop. 

For some reason they have shifted the main menu bar to the top of the screen, and I haven’t found any way (yet) to change its location.  Anyone who has driven a car will know that such items as the steering wheel, brake and accelerator pedals are in much the same position no matter what make of car.  Computer interfaces should follow the same pattern, and finding the menu bar is to me like finding the steering wheel on the passenger side of the car.

However, Mint 12 does offer an alternative interface they call MATE.  I booted into that.

This at least has the menu in its old familiar place, but is a bog standard Gnome menu.  I like the Mint menu system that they currently use and can only hope that it will be imported into Mint 12.

The next system I tried out was Windows 8.

To an old fogey who has been used to everything from Windows 3.1 onwards, this is a massive departure from normality.  The first thing that greets you is a desktop and clock.

Notice that there is no Start button, or anything resembling a menu?  They are gone.  To get to the next stage you have to scroll with the mouse wheel.  That brings you to a login screen where you do the usual validation.  If you are expecting a normal screen to appear then, forget it.  What you get is a horizontally scrolling screen filled with “Apps”. ( I have a personal hatred of that word App, and seeing it plastered everywhere offends my senses!)

Clicking on any one of the tiles will launch that programme.  If you do want to get to the standard desktop you have to either click on its tile or hit the Windows key.

One thing that has virtually disappeared is the Title Bar.  Run any programme from its tile and the Title Bar is absent.  The problem then is that there is no Minimise, Resize or Close buttons.  I have yet to find a means of shutting down a programme that is supplied with the OS.

Shutting down Windows 8 is another nightmare.  The only way I can find is to go to the tile screen and to click on the User name.  This gives you the option to log out or switch user.  Choosing log out will eventually bring you back to the original login screen and here is where you find the close down button.

I don’t know how close this version is to the final release but as it stands I hate it.  It is full of bells and whistles that look flashy but lack any kind of function or intuitive use.  Extra steps have been introduced for no reason that I can see,.that just make a simple task more complicated.

It looks like I will be staying with Mint 11 for the foreseeable future.

Originally this site was called “The Other Fellow”, and some time later I changed its name to “A Pipe and a Keyboard”.  I don’t know why I chose that name but it’s sort of stuck now.  The original domain was therefore a bit confusing.  To find “A Pipe and a Keyboard”, you had to enter theotherfellow.com.  Not good.  I therefore registered apipeandakeyboard.com and created a new site on the new domain containing the old posts and comments.  So far so good.

My intention was that when the new site was up and running that I would point the old theotherfellow.com at the new site, and delete the old site and its database.  Once people had gotten used to it, I would let the domain lapse and all vestiges of The Other Fellow would vanish.

Unfortunately my plans didn’t quite work out.  For some reason, the old domain has refused to point.  The new site is working perfectly with just a couple of very minor irritations that I can fix over time.

So if you are one of the tiny elete who have this site bookmarked, I would ask if you could change the domain name please.

Hopefully I will sort out the old domain shortly.